3mo ago

Supreme Court avoids confronting Trump so far, even when it rules against him

www.nbcnews.com

Summary

When the Supreme Court last year wrestled with whether to grant then-former President Donald Trump broad immunity from prosecution, Justice Neil Gorsuch stressed the ruling was “for the ages.”

The court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, has ruled for Trump in half of six emergency applications, without rebuking the administration’s conduct.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “The government’s conduct in this litigation poses an extraordinary threat to the rule of law.”

Professor Leah Litman said justices are influenced by “conservative grievance.”

18 comments

Scared to death... 🤷‍♂️ 🤷‍♂️
If SCROTUS pushes too far and Mafia Don Mangolini decides to blatantly defy them, SCROTUS knows they've no real response other than escalating threats. No physical enforcement mechanism.
Congress abdicated its duties. Judicial as impotent as Chump's little mushroom.
We (and what remains of US democracy) are fucked.
🙄 🖕 🖕
- What if the court tries doing things the right and lawful way, fails, and then says "fuck it, rule of law is obviously dead, so here's a hail mary" and appeals to citizens at large to enforce it, promising immunity to those who act?
  
  That will never happen.
- They have an enforcement mechanism, but it has never been used against the executive and could lead to a lot of death.
  
  [citation needed]
They got paid to play, why would they not play? SCOTUS is a corrupt institution full of criminals. If you expect something other than criminality you're stupid or not paying attention.
So what happens when the judiciary is scared of another body? Who enforces the rules? It seems like the public is hoping the judiciary will do something, the judiciary is waiting for Congress to do something, and congress is doing congress things: pontificating and posturing in the name of theatre. No one is actually doing anything.
There isn't much the court can do if Trump refuses to comply and Republicans in Congress continue to support him. I hate to say it, but avoiding a confrontation may be better than getting into that situation, both for the court and for the country.
- It would be better to have a constitutional crisis now rather than in 2 years when he's consolidated more power and yes men, kicking out resistance from other institutions.
  I have no doubt they'll take the cowards route or take money to take the cowards route.
  
  My hope is that if they wait two years then it'll be to minimize the damage until the midterm elections, at which point Democrats will win both the house and the senate. I think that's the best-case scenario.
For a party of "manly men," none of them can actually say anything to someone's face.
We really need someone with a spine to have some power. Unfortunately, the system doesn't seem set up for it.
Swine

18 comments